“Social Media as an Advertising Tool for Nokia”

Gerodias, Francis Alfredo

TM6004- Marketing Communications

Lecturer- Victor Pineda

Number of Words- 3,000

12 March 2013
Contents

I. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 3

II. Ranking .................................................................................................................... 4

III. The top social media websites .............................................................................. 5

IV. Managing your audience ....................................................................................... 6

V. Making use of Social Media Interaction .................................................................... 7

A.) Give them Incentives .......................................................................................... 9

B.) Promos ............................................................................................................. 11

C.) In-game advertisement .................................................................................... 12

VI. Advantages and Disadvantages .......................................................................... 14

VII. Data Analysis & Conclusion ................................................................................ 15

Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 17

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 I. Introduction
“Social Media Marketing is a recent addition to organizations integrated marketing

communication plans" (Anjum, 2011). With the evolution of technology today, social

media has become part of people’s everyday life to interact, talk, etc. So much that

companies are integrating social media into their advertising plans. This research paper

will discuss social media as an advertising tool for Nokia. This research paper, aims to

provided proper insights on what social media platform Nokia can advertise in, a list of

suggestions would be presented to show how social media interaction could make use

of social media interaction for Nokia. This research paper also includes the list of

advantages and disadvantages of social media advertising.

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 II. Ranking
In recent years, Nokia has fallen from the top spot, with both Samsung and Apple

fighting for the majority of the smart phone market share. It was reported that Apple has

majority share of 53% in the USA (businessinsider.com, 2012) while Samsung has

gained majority share in different parts of Europe, with a total of 61%

(businessinsider.com, 2012), an increase from 52% in 2011. While Nokia has failed to

crack the top 5 in the smart phone share (bgr.com, 2012)

(bgr.com, 2012)

One of the reasons that attribute to Nokia falling to its other mobile competitors is that

the other mobile companies has extensively used social media to advertise their

products, specifically, Samsung, of which, the company has been listed in the top 30

biggest social media advertisers in 2012 (businessinsider.com, 2012). In the top 30,

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Nokia failed to rank, while other mobile companies was also listed, such as Sony and

network provider AT&T, which has a partnership with Apple’s Iphone.

III. The top social media websites

In knowing what social media platform to advertise on, one should consider which social

media has the largest number of registered users, with the company targeting the

percentage of users that are active. One should also account the unique number of

visitors on the website. The following social media platforms were chosen based on

criteria above:

1.) Facebook – It is reported in September 2012, that Facebook has around 1.01

billion registered users and have 584 million active users. It is a huge jump from

845 million registered users reported at the end of 2011 (finance.yahoo.com,

2012).

2.) Twitter – It is reported that Twitter has around 500 Million registered users. With

200 million active users each month (technology.inquirer.net, 2012).

3.) LinkedIn – It is reported that around 200 million registered users are on LinkedIn,

with around 160 million users active worldwide (Birmingham, 2013).

Notable website

Youtube – It is reported to have around 800 Million users with around 100 million users

actively participating in social action within the website every week (youtube).

With the statistics shown, it can be said that having an active social media presence

and integrating advertisement could benefit a company. With the number of active users

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on social media alone, it can be considered an effective way to communicate with the

target market, as millions of people log in every month on social media websites, as well

as reaching them in a cost-effective manner. Creating a strong marketing

communication on these alternative marketing channels could leave a strong

impression on those people online and could result in them purchasing products of

Nokia.

IV. Managing your audience

Once Nokia has chosen which social media platform to advertise in, the company

should know how to advertise through social media and to manage current customers

and potential customers. Here are suggestions the company could follow in their

advertising plan:

1.) Avoid spamming the customers: advertising is important but smothering your

customers online would only result in them being alienated and uninterested

because they’ll feel that ads are just being forced on them.

2.) Engage your audience: social media websites would be an easy way for

customers to engage companies ( and vice versa), so it would be a good move to

engage customers, such as: answering their inquiries, sharing fan photos,

greeting them through social media, conduct simple games, etc. When engaging

your audience, have quick responses and updates as customers who are online

would probably expect quick reply, as internet can easily release information

easily.

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 3.) Be accountable: when the company promotes interaction with customers, be

accountable for anything that happens, this could build trust with customers and

promote honesty and humility for brand reputation.

4.) Be cautious in uploading: whatever material the company uploads, make sure to

double check and think long-term of possible reactions and other factors. Once a

company uploads something, if customers find something offensive or wrong,

they can share the information and would spread over the net in a matter of

seconds and minutes.

V. Making use of Social Media Interaction

Companies through advertising in social media could make use of social media

interaction. One notable example would be “Smash Project Philippines”, they organized

a concert that would happen on March 8, in order to hype up the project, they kept

asking the fans what band would they like to see, so fans kept asking and sharing the

company’s information, resulting in them trending in twitter. Companies, when

interacting, could make use of it, such as gathering data and asking fans to share

pictures to advertise themselves for free or ask fans to like a different page of their

website so they could have more followers to advertise to. Another example of making

use of social media interaction is 2k sports, before releasing the game NBA 2k13, they

made a survey through social media which “NBA legend” would they want to see, with

former NBA superstars, Allen Iverson and Charles Barkley finishing in their social media

poll. Both of which was included in the game, much to the fans delight. Another incident

was that, NBA legend Scottie Pippen wasn’t included and fans made their

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disappointment known through social media, due to the bad feedback, Scottie Pippen

was made available in the game via online updates.

In the example above, data gathering was used by the company to find out what the

customer is looking for in their product. With the end result being, the most popular

“NBA legend” appeared. It resulted in praise from fans and critics alike. In essence,

social media is a great way to communicate with customers; they get real time

feedbacks and is a great two way communication tool for both the company and the

customer. The data gathering in social media could result in free advertisement as

people will talk about your project, resulting in free hype (such as “trending” on Twitter,

which is the most talk about topic).

Figure 1 NBA 2k official facebook page informing fans that they won the best team sports game award while gathering data
for the new NBA 2k14 game

In the image above, one of the ways 2k interacted with their customers was through

their facebook page where they informed their customers that they won an award and
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was asking what the customers want to see in the new NBA 2k14. In essence, it is an

effective marketing communication strategy, the company is gathering information that

customers would want to see in their new upcoming product. For Nokia, they could do

this kind of strategy to gather data to improve their product and to capture the interest of

their customers as they have added improvements customer would want to see on their

product. This, in turn, could result in customer loyalty for Nokia as it shows that they

listen to customers.

A.) Give them Incentives

Figure 2 An image submitted to the Campaign website by Frank Aldana

In the “It’s more fun in the Philippines” tourism campaign, the advertising company

behind it, BBDO Guerrero relied on Viral Marketing, conducting their research and

coming to a conclusion that the Philippines is one of the most net savvy country in the

world. To help promote the campaign, the company created applications where Filipinos

could take a picture and add the caption of more fun in the Philippines. The campaign

became successful as a lot of Filipinos got involved and submitted their entries. In this

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particular event, the company saw the opportunity based on their research and

capitalized on the idea achieving great results. Giving the online Filipino community the

incentive to help promote the country as well as a free application to use worked for the

campaign.

Figure 3 SM Sta Mesa asks through their Facebook page how customers go to their establishment.

In the image above, SM City Sta. Mesa gathers data from its patrons, asking how they

go to SM, in the image, it gathered around 84 comments and 28 likes in just 3 hours. In

essence, the company gave the customers the incentives to choose from the list and to

give them the freedom to answer as they choose. Some companies in different social

media pages disable the feature to comment on their product, this results in customers

getting the feeling of being “Left Out”. For Nokia, this could work, using social media

platforms to gather data once they have gathered a number of followers on their social

media platforms. This in turn also shows customer that Nokia is willing to interact with

their customers on a consistent basis.

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 B.) Promos
Another way Nokia could make use of social media as an advertising tool would be to

create promos that create interaction with the web page as well as a prize, this allow

customers to have the motivation to be creative with files they are going to submit as

well as have a “word of mouth” trend on social media platforms. That way, not only are

customers interacting with the web pages of the company, they also conduct free

advertising for the company via “shares” and by simply telling their entourage.

Figure 4 An example of a promo where customers can participate and win a prize

Nokia could make use of this promo as a way for them to interact with their followers, in

essence, this can work as a free advertising when customers share the news about the

promo, it can also be a creative pool for Nokia, it also allows customer to give live

feedback to them, which, in turn can also be an effective way to gather data on their

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social media page. It can also boost the number of visitors on their social media web

page on different social media platforms. Giving the incentive of a prize gives the

customers the proper motivation to take the contest seriously rather than shrugging the

contest off.

C.) In-game advertisement

Another way of advertising in social media is through their social media games,

Facebook has numerous games to offer to its users, different games that cater to

different users of different ages. From simple games like Farmville, Restaurant City to

puzzle games like Tetris and adult games like Poker and Mafia Wars. Looking at the

games in Facebook, a lot of them have numerous advertisement, if Nokia could partner

with any of the gaming companies and advertise in game, it could help not only increase

awareness of Nokia to different customers but also create a way for them to earn some

profit. One of the ways in-game advertising works is that if a customer clicks on it, the

game closes and it opens a new page, usually the homepage of the ad, it presents

customer options on what they want to do. Usually, for in-game advertisements, it is

related to the game, an example would be Tetris Battle on Facebook, in the game,

when a player wants to buy additional virtual cash, they are redirected to a different

page. The page shows different images of the different e-commerce companies, such

as PayPal and visa, the player chooses which one they want to use to purchase in-

game materials.

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Figure 5 Customer is given an option to buy in game materials

Figure 6 Shows the Different Credit Card Companies as a form of advertisement and payment for the in-game materials

Not only does these show advertisements for e-commerce companies such as PayPal,

Visa and Master Card in game. It also shows how a company could partner with social

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media game developers to increase brand recognition as well as giving the customer

the option to use their services in the game. Creating a strong marketing communication

in-game could capture the attention of a customer due to the fact that every time they

play the game, the ad will continue to appear. It also opens another way of earning

since people who play games usually register with their credit card.

VI. Advantages and Disadvantages

Although social media has become a great tool for companies to advertise in, there are

advantages and disadvantages to advertising in social media.

Here are some advantages (Walters, 2012):

 Captures the attention of current and possible customers with the use of

relevant and interesting content

 Increases presence of brand, particularly for companies that are new in the

market

 Ease in responding to developments in the industry

 Cost effective method of advertising compared to traditional promotional

activities

 Increases web search, sales, and revenues due to consistent appearance in

web search results

 Allows companies to respond swiftly to customer feedback and improve the

quality of services based on the suggestions

 Increases chance of getting new clients through networking

Here are some disadvantages (Walters, 2012):

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  Managing social media becomes a necessity to maintain visibility to the public

 Existing difficulty in measuring different ROI from different social media channels

 Can damage brand reputation quickly due to the number of users online

spreading the news quickly.

As with all marketing channels, there are advantages and disadvantages in choosing

where a company could advertise in. For social media, the advantages outweigh the

disadvantages; however, the most crucial disadvantage that should be noted must be

the damage it can make to a reputation or online damage (Funk, 2012), as information

can be delivered fast in any part of the world. A notable example was the Nescafe

Hungary Disqualifaction Incident where a contestant won although they disqualified the

contestant for asking help from a different website. Negative feedbacks from different

parts of the country appeared and called for boycott of Nescafe, under heavy public

pressure; the company looked at the incident and overturned the disqualification (ABC

News, 2011). Although, for a company, such as Nokia, advertising or communicating

with customers through social media is advisable, since it increases brand presence as

well as first hand data from customers can be gathered.

VII. Data Analysis & Conclusion

All in all, social media platforms can serve as a great advertising mean for a company.

For Nokia, entering social media platforms would benefit them greatly, as it is a great

way to reach a vast audience of potential customers as well as current customers,

although it is recommended to maintain active and consistent presence on Facebook,

Twitter, LinkedIn (the most populated social media platforms). It can also be a way to

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generate a two way communication with customers and as a way for Nokia to gather

firsthand valuable information from customers to incorporate to their new product. It can

also serve as a way to advertise events, promos, product launch, etc. Also, another

thing that should be noted is that proper interactions on these social media platforms

create a proper communication channel with the customers and having proper

management in their interaction with customers is strictly advised and in this research

paper, a list of proposed suggestions for proper social media interaction management is

given. In essence, having proper exposure on these social media platforms could result

in increase in customers, new customers that follow the social media platforms, and

generally, sales. Social media is an effective way to advertise and market in, so long as

a the company, such as Nokia maintain active and consistent presence, proper

response and synchronized management of all social media platforms, as having

different things on the different social media web pages could result in confusion among

customers. With the advantages outweighing the disadvantages, social media

advertising is beneficial, although Nokia should be weary of the information they send

out, as it can cripple company reputation and news can spread in cyberspace quickly. It

is therefore concluded by the researcher that social media advertising should be used

and focused on by Nokia, to increase their presence and result in increase in

customers, increase in research results on search engines, to cut costs from advertising

as traditional advertising such as television ads are expensive, compared to social

media and to generally establish a communication channel with the customers on online

social media platforms among other things. All objectives have been met and answered

in this research paper.

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